We know from a reference in William Langland's Piers Plowman, that ballads about Robin Hood were being sung from at least the late 14th century and the oldest detailed material we have is Wynkyn de Worde's collection of Robin Hood ballads printed about 1495. The music of Cornwall is often noted for its similarity to that of Brittany and, as a result of the close physical and cultural ties between the two peninsulas, some older songs and carols share the same root as Breton tunes.

There was an internationalisation of courtly music in terms of both instruments, such as the lute, dulcimer and early forms of the harpsichord, and in form with the development of madrigals, pavanes and galliards. Cecil Sharp's interest in the region was largely confined to the south, particularly the Cotswold morris villages of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, which provided him with an archetype of English ceremonial dance. The shift to urban centres also began to create new types of music, including from the 1850s the Music hall, which developed from performances in ale houses into theatres and became the dominant locus of English popular music for over a century. dance Polka 2/2 and 4/4 dances Barn dance Highland Fling Hornpipe Reel Strathspey 3/4 dances Waltz 6/8 dances Jig Two-step 9/8 dances Slip jig Non-dance tunes Marches and airs which exist in various meters.Also like the West Country it is one of the few regions where there is still an active tradition of step dancing and like the Midlands the tradition of Molly dance died out in the 1930s. Prichard, The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), pp.

The contribution of English composers to the classical music canon is rich, varied, and centuries old.Folk songs from the West Country include ' Widdecombe Fair', ' Spanish Ladies' and 'The Seeds of Love. The soundtrack includes songs from Ora Cogan, Tom McRae and The Wailin’ Jennys amongst others, with at least one recognisable song featuring in almost every episode in the six-part run. The hornpipe is a style of dance music thought to have taken its name from an English reed instrument by at least the 17th century. They declined after the Protestant Reformation which banned many religious festivals, but some famous carols were written in this period, including ' The Holly and the Ivy' and they were more strongly revived from the 19th century and began to be written and adapted by eminent composers.

D. Russell, Popular Music in England, 1840–1914: A Social History (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1987), pp. The Cornish bagpipes died out, as elsewhere in southern England, in the 16th century, but have recently been re-created. The folk music of England is a tradition-based music which has existed since the later medieval period. Some of these revivalists recorded folk songs on wax cylinders, and many of the recordings, including Percy Grainger's collection, are available online courtesy of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library and the British Library Sound Archive. Folk music traditionally was preserved and passed on orally within communities, but print and subsequently audio recordings have since become the primary means of transmission.Episode 6, however, closes with American Tune by Crooked Still, an American band with folk-country, Americana, and bluegrass influences. The show follows America, 1890 - two strangers who are drawn together in the violent landscape in 1890 America, and it has a star-studded cast including Emily Blunt, Chaske Spencer, Rafe Spall, Tom Hughes and Toby Jones.